thanks for coming on. >> good morning. >> i want to start with something you said about chuck hagel's conconfirmation. you were somebody that was always rumored as a potential republican that president obama could tap and ask to serve in various positions. secretary of state. do you believe if you had been nominated, would you have gotten the same treatment that chuck hagel got by your former republican colleagues? >> probably not. i think perhaps we would have more support. but the fact is that i indicated many times i did not want to serve in the obama administration. did not want to be an appointed official. i appreciated being an elected official. and the independence that came with that status. >> it seems that you believe that chuck hagel was treated differently simply because he was a republican who didn't -- who switched sides. >> in this particular context, unfortunately, very early on, people seized upon various positions of chuck hagel. i think there were legitimately held by chuck. he sat next to me in the foreign relations committee. we had very good debate and discussion